Skerritt, J. (2020, April 29). Tyson Foods helped create the coronavirus meat shortage. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-04-29/meat-shortage-tyson
John Tyson and his family own the largest meat producing company in the nation. His company alone controls about ⅔ of the market production, which means, however, he reacts to COVID will significantly impact the industry. Tyson released a statement saying that he values his employee’s safety as his top priority. During the earlier stages of the pandemic, Tyson was being safe and had reduced employees working to ensure the reduced spread of COVID. Trump then spoke on this topic, strongly suggesting that all meat factories stay open during COVID and continue business as usual. Now, Tyson is struggling to find workers to maintain his factories and is very desperate. Although countless Americans are looking for jobs, working in the meat industry isn’t the safest job during a pandemic.
I think Tyson is in a challenging position since he owns a majority of the industry. He leads by example, which also means whatever actions he takes could be put under scrutiny. What he did at the beginning of the pandemic was very smart, playing it safe to ensure his workers’ safety, but as the pandemic went on, he began to loosen up on this. He is in an extremely tough position whether to decide to open his factories to continue production or put the value of his employees higher and reduce open factories. I would suggest trying to open the bare minimum, if any, and have stringent COVID restrictions.
I think this article is really important because it sheds light on such a large industry that doesn’t first come to mind when we think about COVID. I am curious to see how Tyson chooses to move forwards into 2021.
Yes, it will be interesting to see what happens. Thanks for commenting.
This is definitely an interesting article, I didn’t know that a single company could own that much of an industry. I wonder how big of an impact a meat shortage could be on the American people.
In 2019 the average consumer ate around 222.2 pounds of red meat and poultry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A meat shortage would only mean people would consume less, which will be a bit better for our environment.
I wasn’t aware of the impact Tyson has had on the meat industry. It’s truly appalling what he’s done. I think opening under a high level of restrictions would be perfect given the meat industry’s current situation.
Thanks for commenting Sepand! I would agree that for the workers that would be the best option.